Estate Sales Agent pushing for bank statements

Modworld

Hi everyone,
I'm a chain free first time buyer who put down an offer on a home. I do have a MIP certificate from a bank and a broker. I will be a 75~78% LTV mortgage buyer.
However, the estate agent, asked for ID's, which I understand to consider my offer seriously. Also for financial information i.e. 3 months of payslips & bank statements. I do understand this is so they can  have the in-house broker / financial advisor present loan offers to me  and make a commission. But are the bank statements really required? I do not feel comfortable providing this just for the purpose of an "quote",. But, I am very interested in seeing how their offers match up against what I've been able to find.
I did communicate my worry and the feeling of this being a bit excessive and unnecessary in my view, but the EA replied

 "to get the most out of the appointment with advisor, she needs exacts figures of incoming and out goings – hence the need for bank statements – every mortgage advisor will need them, advisor can’t take estimates of figures with something as important as a mortgage."

Do you all reckon this is just typical from EA to fish me in for higher prices or to see how much they can get off me? Or do they really need this to provide me with mortgage quote's??

Thanks all,
MW

Seashell517

You're going to have to show plenty of people your bank statements soon enough. If you want the property, then just hand it over. If you're not interested in using their broker (you shouldn't be) then by all means tell them but expect to have to answer their questions anyway and then just politely say you aren't interested again afterwards.

davidmcn

I think people worry too much about the agents knowing how much you could afford. There's no rule that you're meant to spend the maximum you can afford on a property - if you don't think it's worth the money being asked, just say so. All it will remove is the "I can't possibly afford that amount" argument.

SpiderLegs

Did you not have to provide your information to your own broker?

anteguardian

You don’t have to get mortgage quotes from the EA if you don’t want to. Therefore you wouldn’t need to provide them with your bank statements if you told them you didn’t want said quotes.

What they have said is correct if you want them to be able to provide you with quotes... how else are they going to assess your affordability? 

Im assuming you’ve already had a look yourself as you have a MIP - where did you get this from? Did you apply yourself? 

UnderOffer

So has your offer been accepted? If yes, just be firm and tell them you don’t need to see their in house mortgage advisor, can you provide evidence of just your deposit to satisfy that you can afford property? If your offer has not been accepted or put forward to vendor ask them why, I doubt they will put it in writing that they want you to attend in house MA before offer put forward. 

eddddy

1. If you have an offer on a property accepted, it's usual for the EA to ask to see a MIP and bank statements to prove you have enough cash for the deposit. (It's to stop time-wasters and dreamers who make offers when they don't really have the funds to buy.)

2. If you also want a mortgage quote from the EA's mortgage broker, you'd typically need to provide 3 months of bank statements, payslips etc.

Do you want a mortgage quote? Or are you just making an offer?

EA's regulations require them to check your finances (option 1 above) if you have an offer accepted. But option 2 is a pure selling activity - they want to make money by arranging a mortgage for you. 

[Deleted User]

Mortgage advisors have access to a sourcing system that shows deals available to them.  They can see what deals may be available using just the purchase price, mortgage amount, overall term, and product term.  
They do not need to see documents to give an idea of what is available with the caveat that they dont know if you qualify for it until they see your documents

If they can offer you something of interest maybe you move forward at that point but they are being a bit disingenuous saying they are needed to even see what is available

I used to do these checks for an EA.  The whole idea is to push you so far along to a point you feel you need to go ahead with them.  You have to be a certain type of broker to be happy with tricking people to use you for a mortgage application.  

Modworld

SpiderLegs said:

Did you not have to provide your information to your own broker?

Both the bank (TSB) and the independent broker were happy to work with the numbers I provided (accurate numbers). 

tacticalbanjo

When I last bought the EA tried this but I insisted that I had a broker that I was happy with but gave them the broker's details so they could confirm that I was good for the amount I had offered.

Modworld

UnderOffer said:

So has your offer been accepted? If yes, just be firm and tell them you don’t need to see their in house mortgage advisor, can you provide evidence of just your deposit to satisfy that you can afford property? If your offer has not been accepted or put forward to vendor ask them why, I doubt they will put it in writing that they want you to attend in house MA before offer put forward. 

Offer was rejected as too low (wanted 10k off ). But as I mentioned, I was curious to see how my searches stack up against any offers they might provide. Just wasn't sure if the bank statements really are that important.